What is Marcus Smart’s Worth?

The Celtics guard is a restricted free agent this summer. Yet, no team other than the Celtics has made him an offer. The Celtics offered him a $6.1 million qualifying offer, which to me, isn’t what he’s worth.

Smart was ‘hurt, disgusted’ by the lack of calls from the Celtics. Listen, if I was Marcus Smart, I would be a little pissed too. For the past four years, he’s been giving you 100% on the court. He does the dirty work while dropping some points and making winning plays in clutch time. But… yes theres always a but in contract negotiations…

Smart’s offense is something that should scare teams. His efficiency field goal rating of 44% is no where near the league average of 52.1%. Don’t even get me started on his 3-point percentage. If you’ve watched the Celtics enough over the past few years, then you know this man takes some of the dumbest shots I’ve ever scene in my entire life. A lot of them are unneeded since we’ve had better options like Isaiah Thomas and Kyrie Irving. His immaturity should also scare teams. In a blowout loss to the Wizards back in January of 2017, he was scene arguing with coaches, and later on after the game, punched a hole in the wall of the visiting locker room. Also, a year later in 2018, instead of giving Kyrie the ball to take an open shot for a game-winner vs the Lakers, he shot an ill-advised 3 and bricked it. After the game at the teams hotel, he swiped a picture frame and injured his hand which took him out for several weeks. He takes bad shots, doesn’t shoot well, has an immaturity problem, and thinks he’s worth $12-$14 million.

In my opinion, the reason why he’s been allowed to shoot such horrendous shots is because the Celtics value his hustle and grit and amazing defense, they’ll let him shoot. But would other teams want that? Would a rebuilding team, who’s trying to establish a culture with team basketball, always hustle, and don’t take bad shots, really want Marcus Smart? It works in the Celtics system because they have contained him just enough to where he passes to his star teammate instead of taking horrendous shots. i don’t see any other contending teams taking a shot at Smart as he doesn’t fit the shooting bill of Golden State, Houston, etc.

Giving Smart the money he wants is ridiculous. Listen, he’s a great player in terms of defense and hustle; a mismatch is normally a 6-4 guard vs a 6-9 forward, but not to Smart. His bulky build and great footwork makes up for what he lacks in height. When you need a bucket, he’s there for you most of the time, when he’s having a garbage offensive game, he makes up for it with a last minute steal or block to seal the game or to keep you in it. He will stick up for his teammates. But in a game where two way players, which exceptional offensive games are revered, Smart fails to get there. But that still doesn’t mean he’s only worth $6 million.

Marcus Smart needs to view this as a business first and I’m sure he does. These negotiations are Danny Ainge’s poker game Smart will lose at unless another team like the Kings pays him a stupid amount of money. But he could use this coming year to play his ass off, improve offensively, and get more money on the market next year as an unrestricted free agent.

He’s worth $9-$11 million dollars. Any more and he would be paid way too much and any team paying him $12 million or more is crazy and just looking to spend money.

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Author: Fredy

I love sports and everything about it. Growing up, my father and I shared an unbreakable bond watching all 4 Boston sports teams winning championships. I hope you enjoy the blogs we write as much as we enjoy writing them for you!
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